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Vintage Paint Color for a '73 Slash 5 Bike

Hi Guys,

I know my bike technically falls in the Airhead category but feel this model will be a Vintage bike in the future.

Bike is a '73 R50/5. Currently is painted Bronco Brown - a color used on later Airheads. Overall, the paint job is nice - although I'd never sought out a brown colored car or bike, the metallic brown is attractive. It has the double gold pin striping that looks original.

The tank, however, is in good shape but has more than a few deep scratches and nicks. So knowing that I'm going to get the tank repainted and plan to see the painter this week, my question is:

To keep the bike "period correct" should I have him repaint everything black with white pinstripes? If matching the paint wasn't so difficult, I'd have him just paint the tank - I've called around, including Holt BMW and have been directed to a website that lists the color code for Bronco Brown but two paint shops said they don't see a formula for it.

I know some of you will say, "it's your bike, paint it whatever color you want," but I'm interested in preserving the time period when the bike was made. Also, the tank is not a toaster tank and doesn't have the black rubber knee pads like some of these bikes do. If I decide to paint it black, do I need to pull off the headlight bucket and get that painted too? I'm leery of pulling all the wires out of the headlight and not putting it back correctly, as the bike currently runs nice.

I'm not sure I understand your point about "this bike will be a vintage bike in the future". Won't they all? Basically the Vintage section is for all pre 1970 bikes. So, is your point in posting here that you want to hear about pre 1970 colors? Obviously mostly it was Avus Schwartz with white pinstripes. There were other colors such as Dover White, Grenada Red, etc.

Period correct for the /5 is a different animal that adopting the period colors for a /2.

Posted here thinking folks here have restored bikes from top to bottom - these are the bikes I see at the rallies in the vintage exhibits.

Well, that's true, but only partly...I think the same restoration ideas are available in the Airheads forum. If you're looking for period correct on a /5, I don't think this is the best place for your questions. But then you've kind of gone down this path already:

I know my bike technically falls in the Airhead category but feel this model will be a Vintage bike in the future.

Bike is a '73 R50/5. Currently is painted Bronco Brown - a color used on later Airheads. Overall, the paint job is nice - although I'd never sought out a brown colored car or bike, the metallic brown is attractive. It has the double gold pin striping that looks original.

The tank, however, is in good shape but has more than a few deep scratches and nicks. So knowing that I'm going to get the tank repainted and plan to see the painter this week, my question is:

To keep the bike "period correct" should I have him repaint everything black with white pinstripes? If matching the paint wasn't so difficult, I'd have him just paint the tank - I've called around, including Holt BMW and have been directed to a website that lists the color code for Bronco Brown but two paint shops said they don't see a formula for it.

I know some of you will say, "it's your bike, paint it whatever color you want," but I'm interested in preserving the time period when the bike was made. Also, the tank is not a toaster tank and doesn't have the black rubber knee pads like some of these bikes do. If I decide to paint it black, do I need to pull off the headlight bucket and get that painted too? I'm leery of pulling all the wires out of the headlight and not putting it back correctly, as the bike currently runs nice.

I'd appreciate your input!

Ken,

Some years back I was going to paint my 1973.5 75/5 the brown metallic that you mention. Like you I liked how it looked. My /5 is still the curry colour, large tank as when I bought it new.

Long story short, I still have the brown BMW paint and clear coat. Want me to send it your way?

Thank You so much for your very generous offer - that's why I love this club - people like you!

So, I met with the painter and he felt confident about matching the color - I found the painter thru the paint mixer at the Car-CO dealer. I told him if he could paint the tank and match the fenders (which the paint is really nice) to go that route and if not, we'll paint it black.

Just spoke with the "mixer" and with the use of his scanner, he's in the process of matching the paint - he feels the brown is a very cool color and in a way, so do I - as I said before, I'd never pick brown but it is kinda interesting.

I had a good result with a painter who used one of those "scanner" devices to mix up some Monza Blue for a Wixom fairing for my /5. The only thing to consider would be to have him use the front fender or tank to compensate for U.V. wash out. I gave my painter a monza blue rear fender, and the paint match was almost too good when hung on a bike with 30+ years of exposure on the original paint.